Summary
Officially dated to 1898, Sweet Olive was the first cemetery for African Americans incorporated in the Baton Rouge city limits. The exact date that burials began occurring is unknown and is thought to be earlier than 1898. From 1898 to 1912, Sweet Olive was owned and maintained jointly by two benevolent societies. In 1912, the property was divided and was separately owned by the two societies until 1975. It was at this time that the Sweet Olive board was incorporated as a nonprofit organization and became recognized by the Louisiana Cemetery Board.
Sweet Olive is the oldest African American cemetery established in Baton Rouge by an African American fraternal organization. Sweet Olive and the Lutheran cemetery were the only African American cemeteries in Baton Rouge until 1926, and of the two, Sweet Olive was the closest to the center of 19th century Baton Rouge.
Sweet Olive is currently 4.95 acres bounded by North Boulevard on the north side, Delphine street and Baxter Street on the east side, Louisiana Avenue on the south side, and South 22nd on the west side. (Mahoney, Anne (2014), Nominating Sweet Olive Cemetery: Baton Rouge’s Oldest African American Cemetery and the Preservation Process of Urban Historic Cemeteries in Southeast Louisiana, M.A., University of Louisiana at Lafayette, United States of America). The two plots that the cemetery occupies on either side of America Street are identifiable as square 21 and 22 of the Fuqua and Lamon subdivision, which was created in 1871 (Conveyance Records, transfer from Fuqua to T. S. Jones, East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Original Bundle No. 24:48).
Sweet Olive is the oldest African American cemetery established in Baton Rouge by an African American fraternal organization. Sweet Olive and the Lutheran cemetery were the only African American cemeteries in Baton Rouge until 1926, and of the two, Sweet Olive was the closest to the center of 19th century Baton Rouge.
Sweet Olive is currently 4.95 acres bounded by North Boulevard on the north side, Delphine street and Baxter Street on the east side, Louisiana Avenue on the south side, and South 22nd on the west side. (Mahoney, Anne (2014), Nominating Sweet Olive Cemetery: Baton Rouge’s Oldest African American Cemetery and the Preservation Process of Urban Historic Cemeteries in Southeast Louisiana, M.A., University of Louisiana at Lafayette, United States of America). The two plots that the cemetery occupies on either side of America Street are identifiable as square 21 and 22 of the Fuqua and Lamon subdivision, which was created in 1871 (Conveyance Records, transfer from Fuqua to T. S. Jones, East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Original Bundle No. 24:48).
1898-1929
Some have estimated the age of the cemetery to be 1850, but I found no mention of the cemetery until the benevolent societies first purchased the land in 1898.
In 1873, the First African Baptist Benevolent society chartered for the purpose of “charitable nature, such as visiting the sick, burying the dead.” (East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Conveyance Records, Volume 2, pp. 192-193. Articles of Incorporation of the First African Baptist Society of the City of Baton Rouge Louisiana, 1873)
The second benevolent society that managed Sweet Olive Cemetery along with the First African Baptist was Sons and Daughters of Mount Pleasant Baptist Society, chartered in 1883. (East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court, Baton Rouge, Conveyance Records, Volume 7, pg. 221.)
The years between 1905 and 1920 were full of turmoil for Sweet Olive and the benevolent societies, involving ownership debates and lawsuits as well as financial problems. They applied for financial help from the state in 1910, but were denied in an insulting notice in the Times Picayune and Daily State Times.
In 1925, an investigation into the cemetery by Dr. T. Jeff McHugh, city health officer, and Dr. G. W. Sitman, parish health officer, because of an anonymous letter claiming that “the man that is in thare [sic]” buries the people too shallow and sometimes two to a grave. (State Times, Baton Rouge, Feb. 7, 1925, pg. 9.) February 8, 1929, four years after the investigation started, G. W. Sitman, president of the East Baton Rouge parish Board of Health announced that Sweet Olive would no longer be used for burials.
In 1873, the First African Baptist Benevolent society chartered for the purpose of “charitable nature, such as visiting the sick, burying the dead.” (East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Conveyance Records, Volume 2, pp. 192-193. Articles of Incorporation of the First African Baptist Society of the City of Baton Rouge Louisiana, 1873)
The second benevolent society that managed Sweet Olive Cemetery along with the First African Baptist was Sons and Daughters of Mount Pleasant Baptist Society, chartered in 1883. (East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court, Baton Rouge, Conveyance Records, Volume 7, pg. 221.)
The years between 1905 and 1920 were full of turmoil for Sweet Olive and the benevolent societies, involving ownership debates and lawsuits as well as financial problems. They applied for financial help from the state in 1910, but were denied in an insulting notice in the Times Picayune and Daily State Times.
In 1925, an investigation into the cemetery by Dr. T. Jeff McHugh, city health officer, and Dr. G. W. Sitman, parish health officer, because of an anonymous letter claiming that “the man that is in thare [sic]” buries the people too shallow and sometimes two to a grave. (State Times, Baton Rouge, Feb. 7, 1925, pg. 9.) February 8, 1929, four years after the investigation started, G. W. Sitman, president of the East Baton Rouge parish Board of Health announced that Sweet Olive would no longer be used for burials.
1930-1949
In 1931, Masonic Grand Master Henry Williams died in his home, less than a mile from the cemetery, and was buried in Sweet Olive (The State Times, Baton Rouge, Sept 10, 1931, p 9). This marked the first published burial, as far as I can find, since the Board of Health closed the cemetery. It is unclear why burials resumed in the 1930s, but author Faye Phillips speculates that above ground burials started in the 1930s (Faye Phillips, Baton Rouge Cemeteries, Arcadia Publishing, 2012). Most likely, the above ground burials solved the crowding problem that contributed to the cemetery's closure. |
In 1938, the residents of the neighborhood bordering the cemetery, "in the Ninth Ward of the Parish of East Baton Rouge," signed a petition to the district attorney to "prohibite further internment and burials in the Sweet Olive Cemetery" because "said cemetery's facilities are taxed to overloading...it is a well established fact that burials have been and are being made upon that portion of said property which should be properly reserved for the construction of a sidewalk along said streets adjacent" (State-Times, Baton Rouge, La, Wednesday Afternoon, September 28, 1938, page 21).
1950 - 1976
In the 1970s, individuals working to preserve Baton Rouge and New Orleans’ historic cemeteries because of the fear of losing important history, the desire for community beautification, and environmental considerations by founding incorporations, fundraising, researching cemetery history, and conducting restoration represent an important example of grassroots efforts to preserve cultural landscapes.
Fred C Matthews, Jr. was born in 1906 and moved to Baton Rouge with his father in 1920. He worked for Exxon for more than thirty years and was a Trustee of Magnolia Hope Baptist Church. Vivian and Fred formed the Sweet Olive Cemetery Association in 1975 and Fred served as president and stayed active in the association until his death. He died on October 31, 2001 at age 95. According to Fay Phillips Images of America book, Fred and Vivian are buried in Sweet Olive. Fred Matthews, with the help of City-Parish Beautification Commission, was able to get funding for improvements in Sweet Olive including the study and grant that payed for the brick and steel wall around the cemetery today. The federally funded brick and steel fence on the northern and western boundaries were added in 1976, according to the Morning Advocate, Baton Rouge, July 24, 1976, pg 22-A. 1976 was a bicentennial year for the United States, and the rest of the city was also receiving beautification projects. |